March 28, 1996 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S3101 NAYS—26 NAYS—45 and I hope so—for the upcoming polit- Akaka Feingold Levin Abraham Faircloth Lugar ical conventions in San Diego and in Bryan Glenn McCain Ashcroft Frist Mack Chicago. Bumpers Harkin Mikulski Bennett Gorton McCain Mr. President, I want to speak very Byrd Hollings Bond Gramm McConnell Pryor briefly—and I suspect that I speak on Conrad Kennedy Reid Brown Grams Murkowski Daschle Kerrey Rockefeller Burns Grassley Nickles behalf of other colleagues, Senator Dodd Kerry Sarbanes Campbell Gregg Pressler MCCAIN from Arizona, Senator FEIN- Dorgan Kohl Chafee Hatch Shelby Wellstone GOLD from Wisconsin, Senator LAUTEN- Exon Lautenberg Coats Helms Simpson Cochran Hutchison Smith BERG, Senator LEVIN—after more than So the conference report was agreed Coverdell Inhofe Stevens 21⁄2 years of negotiations and several to. Craig Kassebaum Thomas hard-fought battles, just as the ink is Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I move to DeWine Kempthorne Thompson Dole Kyl Thurmond drying, for a major change like this to reconsider the vote. Domenici Lott Warner be proposed, I think would be a serious Mr. LEAHY. I move to lay that mo- The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this breach of faith with the people in our tion on the table. vote the yeas are 55, the nays are 45. country. Mr. President, a friend and former The motion to lay on the table was Three-fifths of the Senators duly cho- Senator, Eugene McCarthy, who, by agreed to. sen and sworn not having voted in the the way, will be 80 this weekend, has affirmative, the motion is rejected. joked with me about being a ‘‘Cal- f Mr. HELMS addressed the Chair. vinist’’ on congressional gift rules, but The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- the reason many of us Senators worked PRESIDIO PROPERTIES ator from North Carolina. very hard on this reform is that we ADMINISTRATION ACT f want people to have more confidence The Senate continued with the con- FOREIGN RELATIONS AUTHORIZA- and more trust and more faith in the sideration of the bill. TION ACT, FISCAL YEARS 1996 political process. I just want to say CLOTURE MOTION AND 1997—CONFERENCE REPORT that I really think if there is any kind of blanket exemption here, it would be The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clo- Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I ask a terrible mistake. ture motion having been presented that the Chair lay before the Senate I can see the headlines now: ‘‘Mem- under rule XXII, the Chair directs the the conference report to accompany bers of Congress Take a Holiday from clerk to read the motion. H.R. 1561, the State Department Au- New Ethics Rule;’’ or ‘‘Pressed By Spe- The legislative clerk read as follows: thorization bill. cial Interests, Members Backslide to The PRESIDING OFFICER. The CLOTURE MOTION Provide Access;’’ or another headline, clerk will report. ‘‘Safe Harbor From Ethics Rules Mem- We, the undersigned Senators, in accord- The legislative clerk read as follows: ance with the provisions of rule XXII of the bers Let Their Hair Down at the Con- Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby The committee on conference on the dis- ventions.’’ move to bring to a close debate on the Ken- agreeing votes of the two Houses on the Mr. President, I just want to make it nedy amendment No. 3573. amendment of the Senate to the bill (H.R. clear to colleagues that we would be Edward M. Kennedy, Paul Wellstone, Joe 1561), a bill to consolidate the foreign affairs agencies of the United States; to authorize making a terrible mistake. It is one Biden, J.J. Exon, Chuck Robb, Carol thing if there are specific issues that Moseley-Braun, Christopher Dodd, appropriations for the Department of State Bryon L. Dorgan, Claiborne Pell, Kent and related agencies for fiscal years 1996 and have to be resolved, specific problems Conrad, John F. Kerry, Ron Wyden, 1997; to responsibly reduce the authoriza- where maybe there could be minor David Pryor, Russell D. Feingold, Paul tions of appropriations for United States for- clarifications. I say just maybe because Sarbanes, Patrick Leahy, Dianne Fein- eign assistance programs for fiscal years 1996 I think this gift ban legislation is very stein, Frank R. Lautenberg. and 1997, and for other purposes having met, reasonable. after full and free conference, have agreed to VOTE But, quite frankly, people do not recommend and do recommend to their re- want to see us go into these conven- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The spective Houses this report, signed by a ma- tions and having special interests pay question is, Is it the sense of the Sen- jority of the conferees. for our hotels or having them pay for ate that debate shall be brought to a The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without various kinds of outings or having close? objection, the Senate will proceed to them pay for fancy dinners. It is just The yeas and nays are ordered under the consideration of the conference re- simply out of the question, Mr. Presi- rule XXII. port. dent. The clerk will call the roll. (The conference report is printed in We have a $50 limit on a gift. You can The bill clerk called the roll. the House proceedings of the RECORD of take one up to $50. I say if somebody is The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. March 8, 1996.) thinking about eating more than $50 THOMPSON). Are there any other Sen- Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I suggest worth of shrimp at a gathering, this is ators in the Chamber who desire to the absence of a quorum. becoming more a health care issue, not vote? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The an issue of gift reform. The yeas and nays resulted—55 yeas, clerk will call the roll. I do not mean to be just talking nays 45, as follows: The bill clerk proceeded to call the about this with a twinkle in my eye, roll. but I want to say to colleagues, I do [Rollcall Vote No. 58 Leg.] Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I not know what was intended by these YEAS—55 ask unanimous consent to call off the comments, but those who worked very Akaka Ford Moseley-Braun quorum call for 5 minutes to speak as hard on this certainly would be out on Baucus Glenn Moynihan in morning business. the floor. If there was any broad or Biden Graham Murray Bingaman Harkin Nunn The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without blanket exemption, we would oppose it Boxer Hatfield Pell objection, it is so ordered. with all our might. And, more impor- Bradley Heflin Pryor f tantly, people in this country would Breaux Hollings Reid not stand for it. Bryan Inouye Robb NO GIFT BAN EXEMPTION Bumpers Jeffords Mr. President, let me just say one Rockefeller Byrd Johnston Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, more time: The ink is barely dried on Roth Cohen Kennedy Santorum today in the Washington Post, and yes- these new gift rules, and some are now Conrad Kerrey D’Amato Kerry Sarbanes terday in the Congress Daily, there proposing to relax them. All of a sud- Daschle Kohl Simon were some articles suggesting that den we hear about possible exemptions Dodd Lautenberg Snowe Senator MCCONNELL, Chair of the Sen- from the gift rules while Members are Dorgan Leahy Specter ate Ethics Committee, was talking at the conventions. For Democrats and Exon Levin Wellstone Feingold Lieberman Wyden about a blanket exemption on the gift Republicans alike—let me be bipar- Feinstein Mikulski ban—and there may be changes to this, tisan—it would be a huge mistake to go VerDate Aug 31 2005 05:19 Jun 20, 2008 Jkt 041999 PO 00000 Frm 00065 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 J:\ODA16\1996_F~1\S28MR6.REC S28MR6 mmaher on MIKETEMP with SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS S3102 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 28, 1996 back on the very reform law that we Warren Christopher, himself proposed to cut the size of the Federal Govern- passed a few months ago. We must not the abolishment of not one but all ment and to eliminate waste by the do it. three of these agencies. The fact is Federal Government. And this is the There should not be any broad ex- likely to be ignored, as well, that such first piece of legislation to be sent to emptions for these political conven- prominent isolationists as Henry Kis- the President of the United States tions. We ought to live up to the law of singer, George Shultz, Larry which will result in one agency—one the land that we passed. We ought to Eagleburger, General Al Haig, and Jim anachronistic Federal agency—being live up to this reform. We all ought to Baker, all five being former Secretaries abolished. go by very high standards. I think peo- of State, support this, testified on be- I sat at home the night that the ple want us to. half of it, and urged that we pare back President delivered his State of the I yield the floor. I suggest the ab- these anachronistic, bloated foreign af- Union Address. I would rather be with sence of a quorum. fair agencies. Of course, the media did Dot Helms than go to any State of the The PRESIDING OFFICER. The not say much about that. They never Union Address. She is a lot better com- clerk will call the roll. do. pany. I heard the President say over The bill clerk proceeded to call the This bill, of course, does not cut the and over again—it was a great show, by roll. muscle out of our foreign affairs appa- the way—‘‘The era of big Government Mr.